MBA students planted vegetable gardens at an orphanage in Buenos Aires as part of this year’s Global Leadership trip.
It started out modestly, as a way to offer volunteer opportunities to students during one of their international trips, but in the last three years, public service has grown to become the focal point of the annual MBA Global Leadership trip to Argentina.
“There’s a real desire on the part of students to give something back and contribute positively to the places they visit,” says Stephen Estrada, director of professional education, who helps coordinate the program. “With the Global Leadership trip to Buenos Aires, we saw an opportunity to take Tulane’s model of public service and expand it internationally.”
Students and officials from EMA, which works to improve the quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis, show off the wristbands the students recommended to increase awareness of the organization and its work.
The Argentina trip is part of the MBA course Global Leadership III, taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Management Eduardo Guzman and focused on the business environment of Latin America. While this year’s trip included a two-day academic program on doing business in Latin America, the centerpiece of the trip was service, including a public service day at a local orphanage and a service learning project that matched MBA students with nongovernmental organizations in Argentina. In keeping with Tulane’s model of service learning, the NGO project was designed to enable the students to use knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to help solve real-world problems.
The project kicked off in August when MBA student teams were matched up with one of four organizations: EMA, which works to improve the quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis; Fundación Leon, which promotes social justice; Los Naranjos, which mentors and supports at-risk youth by teaching them the craft of pottery; and Fundación Claritas, which offers educational programs for employees and administrators of NGOs.
Working with translators, the students met with the clients through a series of video conferences and developed consulting reports tailored to meet each organization’s needs, whether those needs were marketing assistance, advice on a business plan, financial analysis or managerial recommendations.
During November’s trip to Argentina, the students presented their reports to the clients in person and answered questions about their recommendations and conclusions.
“The thing I’ll remember the most is seeing how excited they were about our report and presentation,” says Reid Pennebaker (MBA ’13), whose team came up with ideas to generate additional revenues for Fundación Claritas. “That moment when you see your work will impact someone in a positive way is something you can’t recreate.”
While time constraints and language barriers made the project one of the more difficult ones he’s worked on as an MBA student, Pennebaker says it was also one of the most rewarding.
“All of us wished we’d had more time to interact with the clients and hone in even better on our suggestions, but at the end of the day the client was very happy and we were very happy. Overall, it was a wonderful experience.”
{ 0 comments… add one now }